Welfare Group Calls for Audit of USDA Program

The Process Verified Program has come under fire following the release of an Animal Welfare Institute report.

The Animal Welfare Institute is calling for an official audit of the US Department of Agriculture’s Process Verified Program—a certification system that designates some animal products as “humanely raised”—calling the label inaccurate and misleading. In a recent investigative report, AWI alleges that, because there is no federal standard for what constitutes humane treatment, companies need only adhere to their own self-defined standards in order to bear the Process Verified label. As evidence of the Process Verified Program’s lax regulations, the report cites the inhumane practices documented at two of the program’s approved farms, Sparboe and Perdue, both of which have been the subject of animal-cruelty investigations.

Please support independent
vegan media and get the very best
in news, recipes, travel, beauty, products,
and more.
Subscribe now to the world’s #1 plant-based magazine!